Carlos Sainz is unsure whether Ferrari will be strong or not at the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, a venue the Scuderia were very impressive at 12 months ago.
At the 2022 Austrian GP, Charles Leclerc and Sainz started second and third, as a result of finishing in those positions during the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.
The duo actually qualified for the sprint in those same positions, behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
However, Leclerc went on to win the actual race, whilst Sainz was looking set to beat Verstappen to second.
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A huge engine failure saw Sainz retire though, with his engine having quite literally blown a hole through the chassis.
Despite the Spaniard’s disappointment last season, Ferrari certainly do have pace at Red Bull’s home race, something they’ll be looking to replicate.
However, Sainz isn’t sure whether the Maranello-based team will be able to perform as well as they did last season, due to how varied the SF-23’s performance has been this year.
Ferrari’s 2023 car has been very inconsistent, as demonstrated in recent races.
The Italians showed good pace in Monaco and Canada, whereas they struggled in Spain.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a venue which Ferrari were unbelievably quick at last season, whilst they were unbelievably poor a few weeks ago.
High-speed corners appear to be an issue for the Italians, something which suggests Austria won’t be a good venue.
The Red Bull Ring consists of several medium and high-speed corners, whilst it also boasts a couple heavy braking points.
There is seemingly so much for Ferrari to discover in Austria as to why their pace is so inconsistent this season, with Sainz concerningly believing that there will be further “variations in our competitiveness” throughout the remainder of 2023.
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“I think our pace in Austria will depend a lot also in the characteristics of the circuit,” Sainz said, as reported by RaceFans.net.
“I think our pace varies a lot, depending on that.
“We’ve seen places like Monaco or Canada, we are stronger than places with higher speed corners like Barcelona where we struggled a bit more. So I think we will see variations in our competitiveness.”